jocks and jockeys (disc, that is…)

by pieces of moments

Well, Wimbledon is well over and I guess I am going through some serious tennis withdrawal. I’ve really been wanting to hit the courts the last couple of days in particular. The problem is I need to see if anyone that is in town is up for it…and see if my wrist is up for it, too. You know, more musicians would probably be into playing sports if it wasn’t for the whole injury factor. Kinda need my wrist available. Who else is looking forward to the U.S. Open?! Still haven’t gotten a chance to play on the only grass courts in the States that my former roomie and I visited a couple summers ago in Newport, RI.

Listen, kids, since I haven’t been able to hit the courts for topspin I went to the studio for spinning records, well, okay, not really, but the DJs at Classical 90.7 KVNO pop in the CDs with skill and precision.

(Love Baker’s Biographical…don’t you?)

I have been listening to KVNO for ever since I can remember. As a kid it was a great and free resource to learn the great pieces of the “classical” repertoire as well as the obscure pieces thrown in here and there to spice things up. It’s where I first heard From the Top – long before I was a From the Top employee, and when there was something I wanted to hear more of, like the Clara Schumann piano concert, I would simply pick up the phone, dial in, submit my petition, and presto – within the hour Clara Schumann was bursting out of my speakers.

Not to make this sound like the funding request weeks that all publicly funded radio stations hold from time to time, but freely accessible music like this is really important, don’t you agree? In order for people to get to like something they have to be able to get to know it first. Kind of a basic principle. It’s much like that one kind of veggie you thought you didn’t like until you got to know it better or that person you had to work with that you realized after a few months really wasn’t so bad after all and maybe even kinda cool in her/his own way. Some things take time to process. Moreover, how can you know if you like something or not if you don’t even know it exists?

Radio is the one place where music still reigns. Music on television certainly has been given the boot. Did anyone else experience a really strong nostalgia for the days when MTV and its ilk actually played music videos after seeing Michael Jackson videos on constant rotation for a few days there? I did. Are our own personal realities so dull and muted that we need to watch hours of other people’s realities in technicolor for entertainment? Okay, so it’s economically adventageous for a station to produce reality tv over a series that requires intelligent writers, talented actors, costumes, etc. I get it. The world is built on money whether I like it or not. Fine. But would it really cost that much more to get some music back on tv? Seriously, people. Okay, rant over. We still have radio…right? Let’s hope so.